AT&T fixes futures broker's costly Internet latency

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 18 January 2006 06:41

Your IT - Home IT

AT&T has implemented a global managed Internet service for BrokerOne, Australia's largest futures broker, that it says has helped the company significantly increase customer satisfaction and profits.

Under a three-year agreement, AT&T will provide and manage a dedicated direct Internet connection between BrokerOne's Sydney office and one of its major trading partners in Chicago. It will be used to give Australian future traders access to offshore futures markets through online software applications.

<br><br>Financial trading is extremely time-sensitive with high-value transactions and, according to BrokerOne's network manager, Zlatko Hristov, "traders know if prices are even a quarter of a second delayed". He added: "Our previous Internet link was not as reliable [as the new one] with major latency issues causing market data delays of up to 30 minutes in periods of extremely high network traffic. This translated into losses of thousands of dollars every second because displayed prices were incorrect and traders could get an incorrect picture of the current market status - which adversely affected not only our profits but our reputation."

<br><br>With the new service, he said: "Latency in very high-trade periods was reduced to a maximum of 3 to10 seconds. Our clients were happy and our profits improved."